Big Fucking Deal (Joe Biden)

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About

"Big Fucking Deal" refers to a gaffe by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden caught on mic during a live television press conference at the White House on March 23rd, 2010. It spread mostly through political blogs and mainstream news coverage of the gaffe.

Origin

On Sunday, March 20th, 2010 the Congress of the United States passed the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, a polarizing but monumental piece of legislation regarding health care in the U.S. Three days later, at the White House ceremony to sign the bill into law, Vice President Joe Biden introduced President Barack Obama before a packed room and a live television audience. During the applause, Biden whispered to Obama that the legislation was "a big fucking deal." This statement was picked up by the microphones and broadcast live over radio and television.

Spread

The story was picked up immediately by mainstream press outlets such as The Guardian^[3] and Huffington Post.^[4] Within hours it was made into an image macro. By the morning of the March 24th, it was turned into two opportunistic single serving sites: http://thisisabigfuckingdeal.com,^[1] a single embed of the video and http://www.abigfuckingdeal.com,^[2] which redirects to the WhiteHouse.gov page for Joe Biden. The moment has since been remembered as one of Biden's most memorable gaffes. A Facebook page "Joe Biden Is a Big Fucking Deal"^[6] was created in August of 2012. It was referenced by fivethirtyeight^[5] in a 2019 article about Biden's chances in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary.